Squeezing More Pleasure from Retirement

Behavioral science offers hints about maximizing your retirement spending to get the most happiness out of it. The study of “hedonics,” which applies economic science to the study of happiness, offers interesting ideas that can be incorporated into retirement planning.

For example, people feel happier when rewards change over time, especially when the rewards increase. So, if you use an annuity and Social Security to provide regular income every month, perhaps your retirement plan could include a scheduled withdrawal from a retirement account in certain months, allowing for extra spending at those times, say for a summer vacation or holiday season indulgence.